AskG (Blog)

Hi All,

For years I have had chatted with athletes and coaches about the different levels of competition athletes will see on the road to OFSAA.  The qualifying process is one that has patterns that I have seen that I would like to share.

The number in brackets is the number of athletes that advance to the next meet.

WCSSAA(4) little step up to CWOSSA (5) big step up to OFSAA West (4) little step up to OFSAA.

I like to tell athletes that the big jump in the level of competition is from CWOSSA to Regionals.  I have also noticed that athletes that do qualify for OFSAA from the West Region usually finish in the Top 10 at OFSAA.  This is due to the strong level of competition in our West Region.

Another factor that comes into play @ the level of the Regional meet is travel and how that affects the athletes.  It is a great advantage to be able to sleep at home and have a regular day as well as being familiar with the facility like we are this year with Res.

I also suggest that athletes stay home as long as they can to rest at a meet like Regionals.  Just make sure that you are at the meet 90 min ahead of your event so you can warm up well and be ready to compete.

Also, due to the much older tracks that we have in the CWOSSA region, athletes that come from the WOSSA and SWOSSAA usually run more slowly when they come to KW.  This was the case for most of the out of town athletes the last time the Regionals were here.

Finally, you never know what conditions the other schools had to deal with for their meets and what type of performances the athletes had.  Was it a PB??  Was there a bad handoff??  Were they slightly injured?  The list goes on and on.

Bottom line……aim to do your best at every meet.  That is the only thing that you have control over.

Most importantly, enjoy the journey!!

Cheers,

Coach G